And shitty it was. My two brothers, Big Brother and Squirt, spent 45 minutes walking in the sea at low tide without spotting a single thing. Personally, I like to venture out at low tide before dusk, when the sun is still out so I can spot oysters for their pearls. The worst part is tugging the oyster from its root, mostly because I abhor the tiny little worms that live on it since I'm worm-phobic. The best part, however, is when you lay them out and watch them open up slowly. When that happens, you take a knife and quickly put it inside the oyster before it clamps shut again. From there, you crack it open and fiddle around with the oyster's insides to see if there are any pearls in it.

View of the shore

My eldest sister always comes to mind at these situations i.e. tigimber. Her first love is the sea; I won't be surprised if she starts to grow scales on her legs before she turns into a mermaid. When I was younger, the two of us would always go out to sea at low tide. When we approached the deep end, I would entertain myself by drawing on the islands of soft sand that arise at low tide while she fearlessly dives into the deep end, in search of oysters on the rocky reef. I remember once, she caught a gigantic oyster that had four large pearls in it. Another time, she caught a baby shark with my father. They placed it in a large bucket before they let it out to sea again.

The only time I patted myself on the back was when I caught an Indian Flathead i.e. وحرة. It was about seven years ago. I had gone out at low tide and started to head back to our chalet when I saw this large fish as long as my arm lying calmly on the sea's floor. My heart started to race as I came near it. While I was examining it, I was thinking about my two options: I either get hold of the bastard or flee. I stood there contemplating my options before spending ten minutes adjusting my position and aim because I knew this fish would fight back. I finally sunk my fishing spear onto it's back using both hands. I think I stood there putting my weight on it for about 20 minutes. The darn thing was unbelievably strong. Finally, it quit moving around. I took it out of the water and placed my fishing spear on my shoulder before I continued my march back home. I remember my dad didn't believe I caught it all by myself, "It's too strong!" he exclaimed.

Remembering times like these is kind of depressing and disappointing. Not even five years ago, we used to catch a lot of sea creatures when we're halfway from the deep sea. "This is global warming," I told Big Brother for the third time, "And pollution."

"I'm bored. There's nothing here," Squirt complained.

"Have patience! Nothing comes easy. Wait for it," I replied in slight annoyance, "And if you see a baby crab, don't kill it," I added.

I always admired the courageousness the baby crabs have. You don't even pay attention to them and they come at you with their snapping claws.

But we didn't see any crabs this Friday night.

"Khithag! Squid!" my older brother yelled before getting into position to catch it. "This is a good place. Let's just turn around the same area," he said after he plopped his catch in the plastic container Squirt was forced to tug along.

That's when I spotted the largest squid we caught that night, the squid I dubbed "The Godfather" because the guy was a big ol' cephalopod. The problem is, The Godfather wasn't as stupid as the rest. The rest just sit there like stones, thinking nobody can see them. The Godfather kept bumbling along and played it cool the whole time I was tracking him down, speeding up and slowing down while I sloshed carefully through the rising tide. I had good aim, but he was slightly too far for me to have a powerful go at him. I took a deep breath and with one large step I extended my fishing spear (kabar) and "CRACK!" I got him good.

"Big Brother! Big Brother! I caught him!" I was a bit tense, frozen in my attack position with my rear in the air. "Look! He's the biggest one of the bunch!"

10 Comments

Traveleer posted at 11:29 AM
I love the sea and I love fishing. Yes our beloved gulf is not as it used to be. You go out for hours out in your boat and you come out at the end with a few enwaiby o she3em. ANyhowwww... enjoy those squidy moments as much as you can, these are the moments that make you smile when you are feeling down.

f7ee7eely posted at 11:57 AM
Thge Indian Flathead has a poisonous barb on its back -- so the next time you spot one try to avoid touching its back and handle it with extreme caution and care...

I share your passion for oysters I recall as a nine year old kid I used to do a lot of pearl diving whilst father and his friends spearfished them Goliath Groupers -- unfortunetly these gigantic groupers dont exist anymore --

Remember Mark the guy with gils??? I wished I had grown gils just like him :)

من وين تيبين هالسوالف؟

ذكرتينا بالذي مضى لول

f7ee7eely posted at 12:00 PM
My nick name as a kid was Mayfara:)) it stuck with me for 2-3 years

f7ee7eely: haha, well those are the best of time :) and i hope there will be a next time for my little w7ara but seriously, i never expected it to be THAT powerful! i love oysters...the pearls we found are all in an old, empty matchbox in one of my father's drawers...i just saw your other comment...my dad went to sleep 15 minutes ago...i will ask him in the morning...

swair: :))

pearls posted at 11:00 AM
I've always wanted to find real pearls, as for squids I never want to try them out :P

f7ee7eely posted at 12:02 PM
I was listening to ur mp3 music list --I think that Laura Brangian's Self Control would perfectly fit in that list :)

1001 Nights posted at 9:19 AM
Hey Erzi. Laish kil marra afich ur blog ti6la3li ashya2 qadeema and I have to click on April 2008? The same thing happens with eshda3wa's blog. Any tips on making it give me the latest posts by itself?